Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas: The Original

Dylan Thomas blistered and jolted readers thanks to an infatuation with words that became voracious love. It is impossible to overstate the invigorating influence of his work and the tragedy of his early death. John Goodby, a Thomas scholar at the University of Swansea, provides a nimble introduction to the poet and the man.

—The Rumpus

The original and classic Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas is available once again, now with a brilliant new preface by Paul Muldoon.

Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas: The Original

The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas contains poems that Thomas personally decided best represented his work. The year of its publication, Thomas died from swelling of the brain triggered by excessive drinking. (A piece of New Directions history: it was our founder James Laughlin who identified Thomas’ body at the morgue of St. Vincent’s Hospital.) Since its initial publication in 1953, this book has become the definitive edition of the poet’s work. Thomas wrote “Prologue” addressed to “my readers, the strangers” – an introduction in verse that was the last poem he would ever write. Also included are classics such as “And Death Shall Have No Dominion,” “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night,” and “Fern Hill” that have influenced generations of artists from Bob Dylan (who changed his last name from Zimmerman in honor of the poet), to John Lennon (The Beatles included Thomas’ portrait on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band); this collection even appears in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road when it is retrieved from the rubble of a bookshelf.

Paperback (published April 1, 2010)

Ebook (published April 1, 2010)

Dylan Thomas blistered and jolted readers thanks to an infatuation with words that became voracious love. It is impossible to overstate the invigorating influence of his work and the tragedy of his early death. John Goodby, a Thomas scholar at the University of Swansea, provides a nimble introduction to the poet and the man.

—The Rumpus

[It is] the work Thomas himself had considered most representative of his voice as a poet and, now, of his legacy — a legacy that has continued to influence generations of writers, artists, and creative mavericks: Bob Dylan changed his last name from Zimmerman in an homage to the poet, The Beatles drew his likeness onto the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Christopher Nolan made “Do not go gentle into that good night” a narrative centerpiece of his film Interstellar.

—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

A dazzling obscure writer who can be enjoyed without understanding.

—Robert Lowell

More books by this author

New Directions was founded in 1936, when James Laughlin (1914–1997), then a twenty-two-year-old Harvard sophomore, issued the first of the New Directions anthologies. “I asked Ezra Pound for ‘career advice,’” Laughlin recalled. “He had been seeing my poems for months and had ruled them hopeless. He urged me to finish Harvard and then do ‘something’ useful.”